For a Lifetime
by StephanieIrvine
Summary: Dolph didn't really know why he was always running his hand through AJ's hair, maybe he just liked to be near her.


**AN: **Guys, guys. I don't even know what I'm doing, they're just writing themselves at this point.

**For a Lifetime**

He was taller than her by a foot. She had to reach up to kiss him and he had to look down when he smiled at her. She fit nicely into his side though and with his arm slung across her shoulder, his hand liked to wander to her hair and his fingers would often run endlessly through it. He didn't know when or why that little habit had started, but it was like a comfort to him now. Maybe it was his subconscious way to remind him that this was legit, that he and AJ were real and not just a storyline that had become a hit. Hell, maybe he just liked being near her and running his fingers through her hair let his mind settle. He wasn't prone to lying to himself, so he knew sometimes that he did it merely so he could follow it up with a kiss. A fleeting one on top her head, a quick one on her cheek, a lingering one on her lips, really, anywhere, he wasn't complaining. He liked this girl and she was slowly becoming the making of him.

He was doing it right now, playing with her hair as she lay her head in his lap, while busy reading her Batman comic, gone in her fantasy world of villains and superheroes fighting each other, that she either didn't notice or care that he couldn't stop his hand from repeating the same action. Maybe this was what life was supposed to be like, finding that one person you could have quiet moments with, where neither of you had to talk to each other, where you could just exist in the same moment in time and be. If it was, he was glad he found it with AJ.

He never expected to find himself in a relationship with her, if you compared his last five girlfriends, none of them would have brought you to AJ as a contender, but he didn't exactly see her coming. Though, he doubts she saw him heading her way either. It's funny, he thinks, that something as simple as a storyline could lead them here. He's not much a believer in fate, but if their storyline was the start of a path he needed to follow to become a happier man, then he wasn't going to about turn and run. No he wanted this, he wanted the moments, the laughter, the inside jokes, the touches, the calm, he wanted it all.

"Are you trying to put me to sleep?"

Her voice broke through his thoughts and when he looked down at her she was grinning up at him and his hand stopped for a second and he brought himself down to her and kissed her just because he wanted to. "No, but I'll stop if you want me too?"

She shook her head and he gave her a lazy sile before starting again. He couldn't help but notice the shiver that ran through her as he did so. "This is probably the 5th best thing I do huh?" he crowed cockily, his eyes shining.

She grinned up at him again and shrugged. "Maybe your 3rd."

"Oh?" he feigned surprise. "What's number two?"

"Your athletic ability, obviously." She smirked up at him, making him laugh loud.

"And one?"

"I do enjoy your kisses."

"You're not bad either babe." He told her with a wink watching as she lulled her head to the side as she started flicking through the TV channels before settling on a rerun of The Office.

He didn't know your life could change so much in six months, he couldn't really grasp the fact that he had been working away, with Vicki, one moment and then in the next Vince (of all people) had suggested a storyline with him involving AJ. He didn't like that saying '_and the rest is history'_ because it skipped over a lot of important stuff, like how awkward that first month with her had been, how their first attempts at kissing were awkward and gangly, often more a clash of teeth than anything else. It missed things like their growing friendship over silly things like their hatred for Dane Cook or their love for reading. It didn't explain their inside jokes or touch upon how their awkward kisses started to turn into something real. It hid the day, where he absently reached for her hand when they were walking and it didn't show her turn to him with a shy smile as their fingers intertwined. It didn't whisper words of their first real kiss, at her hotel room door as he walked her back from dinner. There wasn't late night movie marathons cuddled together that were subject to gossip.

No, the rest wasn't history, but they were his private moments that he liked to fall back on and remember with a smile and wonder what lay ahead if these moments were so good.

Like this moment right now, with his hand running through her hair, massaging her skull as she giggled at the TV, this moment was priceless, because he knew he was in love with her. And it was a simple moment, such a simple moment. It wasn't like some romantic comedy where one protagonist risked everything for the other, this wasn't a life or death moment where his last words had to mean something, no, it was just a normal day, on a normal sofa, with a girl who made him smile when he looked down at her because he was in love with her.

"AJ?"

"Yeah, babe?" she wondered, distracted, because Jim and Pam were always enough to pull her attention.

"Do you ever have moment when everything just makes sense?"

"Nope, I'm crazy remember." She joked, half her gaze still on the TV. "Do you?"

"Yeah." He answered his tone lazy as his free hand ran down her arm only to lose it in a combined mess of their fingers. "Just now."

"Do you know the meaning of life?"

"Nah," he chuckled. "I just know that I'm in love with you."

Her head whipped towards him, The Office forgotten.

"Pretty sure I'm going to marry you one day too." He admitted with a helpless shrug. "Sorry, not sorry."

He had not expected the silence, not right now anyway.

"Huh."

"Are…you okay?" He wondered, his hand motionless in her hair and his other one rapidly becoming sweaty. He thought that this would be romantic, just them lying together, happy and then an honest confession. Now his stomach felt sick and was that the start of a headache?

"I…"

"Joking." He blurted out. "I'm obviously joking." His nervous laugh wasn't fooling anyone.

"Oh."

"I mean, I _really_ like you, but five months is a little soon for love." And the awkward laugh was back. "I'm sorry." He was so sorry he opened his mouth. He needed some space, he needed to stop holding her hand, he needed to patch the cracks in his heart. "Do you want a drink?"

"Dolph wait." AJ reached out to him as he started to stand. "Nick_, stop._"

And he did because she never called him Nick. Nick was for serious conversations like, buying a new car or something. Nick wasn't around for pretending to tell someone you were joking about telling them you were in love with them. Maybe he should have been. Nick would have handled this better. "Please don't run away."

"AJ…" He couldn't look her in the end as she pulled him down next to her on the sofa. "I just…"

"Look at me."

He did, he looked up at her, being on her knees finally gave her a height advantage and he would have laughed, but he'd forgot how. "I was joking." He whispered, where had his bravado gone?

"No you weren't."

No he was not.

"Neither am I." She let him know resting their foreheads together. "I love you too."

"You love me?"

She nodded.

"I love you too." His grin coming back as he breathed the words against her lips as he kissed her and his hand found her hair again as they kissed.

He just had to make sure this was real.

**Well...this was unexpected. I haven't wrote two stories in one night in a long time. So, enjoy. **


End file.
